Tuesday, February 17, 2015

5 tips to avoid bad tenants

Here are a few top tips for avoiding tenants from hell. Once you have a bad tenant then non-payment of rent becomes a huge issue so you need to avoid these bad tenants in the first place. So this is what you need to do:

1. Always do extensive tenant referencing by thoroughly vetting your tenants
2. Watched out for forged and fake tenant references and faked tenant ID such as passports or driving licences. Are the tenants really who they say they are. Make sure you cross check the information.
3. Double check the tenants ID phone work and go through the switchboard rather than using a direct line this way you have the certainty of matching up the person to the name and ensuring that they really do work where the tenant says they do. It may be you will get the switchboard saying 'oh no they have left the company' or 'we have nobody of this name working here'.
4. Always make sure you insist on seeing the tenants last 6 months of bank statements. This will give you a unique insight into how they conduct their finances including whether they really have been paying the rent on their last rental property. Despite what the last landlord might have said in his tenant reference (could they possibly be trying to get rid of their nightmare tenant to some other poor unsuspecting landlord).
5. When you meet the tenants are they on time for their appointment, do they seem organised and responsible. If they are late for the viewing do they apologise. I'm a great believer in the 'face to face'. I think you can tell a lot about the character of tenant my meeting the tenant personally and don't ignore your landlord senses!